The dragline, or dragline excavator, is a mechanized excavator and crawler that is used in large-scale mining. Draglines are among the largest machines ever built.
It operates with a shovel or scoop attached to the machine only with cables, which offers it a wide range of action and load. However, it reduces power, so the dragline is ideal for excavating and hauling materials that are not very hard.
What elements make up a dragline, and how does it work?
- Machine body: this is the location of the engines and operator’s cabin. The other elements of the machine are assembled off of this main body.
- Mast or boom: the metal structure which rises from the body of the machine and from which the lifting cable hangs, holding the shovel.
- Shovel or scoop: the toothed container that performs the tasks of scraping and loading materials. It moves up and down via the lifting cable, and it moves forward (digging) and backward via the drag wire. With both cables and the operator’s expertise with the machine, the shovel can move, excavate, load and unload materials, etc. Depending on the machine’s dimensions, the working conditions, and the materials’ characteristics, various techniques for operating the shovel are used.
- Lifting cable: the cable that hangs from the tip of the mast. It holds the scoop or shovel and makes it go up and down.
- Drag wire: it is fixed to the shovel and the machine body. It is shortened or lengthened to move the shovel forward or backward, as well as to change its inclination as needed, in coordination with the movement of the lifting cable.
Contents from Ferrovial (https://www.ferrovial.com/en/stem/dragline/)
Video source: Rod
